Known as The HURD, Utah State’s celebrated student section showed up for Wednesday night’s game against Nevada sporting orange safety vests and blue hard hats.
But it turns out that building a big lead and burying the Wolf Pack wasn’t all that hard.
Thanks to 16 3-pointers — including an 11-for-16 performance in the second half — the Aggies ended up crushing their longtime rivals, 90-69, at the Spectrum.
“It was raining. It was raining,” USU forward Aubin Gateretse said of USU’s second-best 3-point barrage of the season. “... When you share the ball, you get open shots. And we’ve got great shooters, so they’re gonna fall for sure.”
The 21-point margin of victory was easily the most comfortable margin of victory in a conference game for Utah State (17-2 overall, 7-1 in the Mountain West) this season. Prior to Wednesday, the Aggies’ first six wins in Mountain West play had been decided by an average of just four points per game.
Utah State, which beat Nevada, 69-64, at Reno on Dec. 31, was very anxious to get back on the court after having its six-game winning streak brought to an end with an 81-79 loss at UNLV on Jan. 15.
“It’s huge,” Gateretse said of getting a win in relatively easy fashion after USU’s bye week. “We talked about it all week, especially coming back from a loss. It really was like we were caged animals. Coach (Calhoun) kept saying that we were very hungry, and they mentioned that the last blowout we had was South Florida (on Dec. 14). So, it was a while ago, and it’s always nice to blow out people.
“It’s easier on your nerves, for sure.”
Nevada was the only team to beat the Aggies at the Spectrum last season, shocking Danny Sprinkle’s squad, 77-63, on Feb. 6, when Utah State was ranked No. 22 in the AP Top 25. The Aggies, who slipped out of the AP Top 25 earlier this week following the loss at UNLV, were expecting another slugfest with the Wolf Pack, but after trailing 11-5 early in the rematch, the home team ended up getting a big performance in the paint from Aubin Gateretse to take the lead and pull away by as many as 13 points in the first half.
Utah State took a 47-38 advantage into halftime, then kept coming up with turnovers and rode its hot shooters to extend its advantage to 24 points in the final 90 seconds of the game.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” USU first-year head coach Jerrod Calhoun proclaimed. “I thought we were really good on both sides tonight. You know, we had been good on one side, and then not so good on the other.
“And I think our fans really deserved this. The crowds have been great; our student section has been incredible. So, we want to play not only well for ourselves, but for these fans and all of Cache Valley.”
The crowd of 9,797 was treated to a 16-for-30 effort from 3-point range by the home team — the Aggies racked up 17 treys against Westminster on Nov. 13 — and the Aggies shot 58.9% from the field overall.
Graduate guard Ian Martinez, who carried USU to the win in Reno by scoring 17 straight points in the final six minutes, led the way offensively, again, scoring 23 points on the strength of a 7-for-9 performance from 3-point range. Graduate guard Dexter Akanno buried a career-high five 3-point attempts on his way to 15 points, while sophomore guard Mason Falslev totaled nine points and a career-best 11 assists.
Gateretse, who had started all 17 games in had played in this year, didn’t get the start at the 5 spot, giving way to sophomore Karson Templin. But the senior from Belgium responded well to coming off the bench, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the first half.
“He knows we weren’t happy with his performance the last five games,” Calhoun said of Gateretse, who didn’t score a point in 24 minutes in the game at Nevada. “So, he came out like his hair was on fire, right? He just went and rolled, and he caught every ball and really ate up a lot of space in the paint. He was a beast.”
Conversely, Templin ended up scoring just two points in 12 minutes before leaving the game with 6:52 after injuring his right ankle. Calhoun didn’t address his status going forward, with the Aggies returning to action Saturday afternoon at Air Force.
Utah State lost the rebounding battle 26-21, but more than made up for that by committing only eight turnovers and totaling 27 assists on 33 field goals. The Aggies also came up with 14 steals, it’s second-highest total of the season.
“It was very tough, we put ourselves behind early with 12 turnovers,” Nevada assistant coach Michael Furlong said. “Then, in the second half, we gave up some good looks and they found a rhythm. Martinez found a really good rhythm, and giving up 16 threes is hard to come back from.”
Although the Aggies weren’t great defensively as far as Nevada’s shooting — the Wolf Pack shot 60% in the first half and 53.1% for the game — they racked up 18 turnovers, which they turned into 25 points. Many of those Nevada’s miscues were USU steals which came courtesy of the Aggies’ full-court press designed to speed up a game that UN head coach Steve Alford hoped to play at a slower pace.
“We were going to press from start to finish,” Calhoun said, “and I think that really set the tempo and just created havoc. That’s what it does to the other team. They’ve got to make quicker decisions, right? We’re not so passive. There’s just certain times in the year that you’ve got to do those sorts of things.”
Junior forward Nick Davidson led Nevada with 19 points, while graduate guard Kobe Sanders (13 points) was the only other visitor to score in double figures.